I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications and more specifically to defining new control data regions in legacy wireless communications systems.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as, for example, voice, data, and so on. Typical wireless communication systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, . . . ). Examples of such multiple-access systems may include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, and the like. Additionally, the systems can conform to specifications such as third generation partnership project (3GPP), 3GPP long term evolution (LTE), ultra mobile broadband (UMB), etc.
Generally, wireless multiple-access communication systems may simultaneously support communication for multiple mobile devices. Each mobile device may communicate with one or more access points (e.g., base stations, femtocells, picocells, relay nodes, and/or the like) via transmissions on forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from access points to mobile devices, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from mobile devices to access points. Further, communications between mobile devices and access points may be established via single-input single-output (SISO) systems, multiple-input single-output (MISO) systems, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, and so forth. In addition, mobile devices can communicate with other mobile devices (and/or access points with other access points) in peer-to-peer wireless network configurations.
In addition, access points and mobile devices (and other devices in a wireless communications system) can communicate according to a specification, such as 3GPP LTE. The specification can define communication parameters, such as channels represented by portions of frequency over time. Channels can be specified for general data communications as well as control data, which can relate to communication quality over general data channels. In LTE, the channels can include, for example, physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), etc. With advances in wireless communication technology, however, PDCCH may be insufficient for communicating control data. For example, multicarrier assignments, larger numbers of devices to be addressed, new operation modes, new downlink control information (DCI) formats, and/or the like, can require additional resources to effectively communicate related control data.